Amazing that these Mars landers are now almost routine. Every one is, in fact, an engineering marvel. Perseverance set down in what is thought to have once been a lake bed, where it will drill down in search of signs of past life and insights into Martian geology. On board is a helicopter drone which will attempt the first human directed flight from place to place on the planet. This is no small thing, given how thin the Martian atmosphere is.

 

Thank you Professor Mike. So Mars got a shot before Lainey? I can't comprehend how planes fly so hitting Mars and flying a drone - - really. What's time lapse between pushing go left and it really goes left? Sometimes I can't even get a good signal from Little Caesar's Arena in Detroit.

Did you watch it live?

 

There is no "live" from Mars. Every signal about everything that happens already happened minutes before (like 5 to 20 minutes depending on signal path). The moon is only 1.3 seconds delay so reasonable voice communication is possible (I say something here on Earth and hear your reply start from the moon 2.6 seconds later.).

There were only simple status signals coming back during decent into the atmosphere, parachute deployment, deceleration, rockets firing, and landing. It's all preprogrammed or self guided by onboard computer. We saw pictures of the landing area from the rover after the landing. All appears to be fine at this point.

 

One of the first pictures Perserverance sent back: (So apparently there is "life" on Mars!)

 

The chopper flight instructions get sent for the flight plan and it (hopefully) gets executed after reception. We've never flown a helicopter on another planet so.... It's supposed to work....

 

^All kidding aside, I just can't imagine the engineering and programming that went into such a mission. Wow!

 

I find it fascinating, Gene. Mary thinks it's a waste of her money.

 

Now imagine an over the air update of a computer that far away.
welcome to my world.

 

I'm with Mary (grabbing my flame suit right now)

 

One could argue the same for public support of the arts. Or any kind of support of reality television.